Researchers Accidentally Discover How To Turn Off Skin Aging Gene 175
BarbaraHudson sends this excerpt from The Province:
While exploring the effects of the protein-degrading enzyme Granzyme B on blood vessels during heart attacks, professor David Granville and other researchers at the University of British Columbia couldn't help noticing that mice engineered to lack the enzyme had beautiful skin at the end of the experiment, while normal mice showed signs of age. The discovery pushed Granville's research in an unexpected new direction.
The researchers built a mechanized rodent tanning salon and exposed mice engineered to lack the enzyme and normal mice to UV light three times a week for 20 weeks, enough to cause redness, but not to burn. At the end of the experiment, the engineered mice still had smooth, unblemished skin, while the normal mice were deeply wrinkled.
Granzyme B breaks down proteins and interferes with the organization and the integrity of collagen, dismantling the scaffolding — or extra-cellular matrix — that cells bind to. This causes structural weakness, leading to wrinkles. Sunlight appears to increase levels of the enzyme and accelerate its damaging effects.
The researchers built a mechanized rodent tanning salon and exposed mice engineered to lack the enzyme and normal mice to UV light three times a week for 20 weeks, enough to cause redness, but not to burn. At the end of the experiment, the engineered mice still had smooth, unblemished skin, while the normal mice were deeply wrinkled.
Granzyme B breaks down proteins and interferes with the organization and the integrity of collagen, dismantling the scaffolding — or extra-cellular matrix — that cells bind to. This causes structural weakness, leading to wrinkles. Sunlight appears to increase levels of the enzyme and accelerate its damaging effects.
Just skin? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just skin? (Score:5, Funny)
Or is the rest of the body "not aging "also?
Probably not, but skin is a LOT of the body. Hey at the least you could end up being a completely crippled , but awfully handsome , 90yo.
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its one of hte areas most prone to damage as you age. it gets thinner, its less able to repair itself, less able to protect the body internals, sun damage, skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, etc.
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A lot of that is directly coupled to the health of the rest of the body. Most old people eat like crap and just sit there. Look at highly active fit old people and you notice that they are not suffering the same effects. Old farmers that are well into their 80's that are still working their farm daily heal as fast as their 40 year old self.
Re: Just skin? (Score:3, Informative)
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Don't try to argue with culturally instilled puritancal "work ethic" a.k.a. self-hate and victim blaming, as it isn't rational, and probably won't go away for quite a few generations yet.
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Hey at the least you could end up being a completely crippled , but awfully handsome [...]
Live fast, die old, leave a good-lookin' corpse.
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Or sexy. Eww!
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Since the experimental design involved artificially aging [only] the skin by exposing the mice to tanning, they probably don't know yet.
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Billions of women (and men) around the world paying TRILLIONS for cosmetic product for what?
Skincare is the number one profit making venue for many cosmetic companies, big and small, all around the world
So, will the cosmetic companies let stupid progress destroy their revenue stream? Uh, I guess no. They will buy the researcher's startup for a shitload of money, and then suprise suprise it turns out the method wasn't so promising after all. And they will keep all patents on the technology so that nobody else can release a competing product.
Re:Skin deep, but that's where the money is ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would they do that? If you're a cosmetics company and you can buy a startup that owns the patents on a technique that actually works, then you'd be stupid to keep competing on a level playing field when you could be the only company that's selling the real thing. Even if you multiply your normal profit margin by a factor of ten, you're still going to be selling huge quantities and raking in the money.
The problem with these conspiracy theories is that they assume that people with large entrenched interests and lots of money somehow have an aversion to turning their big pile of money into an enormous pile of money.
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Re:Skin deep, but that's where the money is ! (Score:5, Interesting)
A few decades back, I knew a researcher/university professor who had developed a ready-for-market, one-day yeast infection treatment when seven-day (or longer) treatments were still the norm. A major pharmaceutical showed extreme interest, purchased the rights from him, then sat on it for the better part of a decade, much to the consternation of the researcher, who was hoping society could benefit from the treatment more rapidly.
What he didn't know at the time was that the pharma company had already developed a three-day treatment that they were getting ready to introduce within the next year or two. They stood to gain a significant competitive advantage in introducing the three-day treatment, since they'd be the first-to-market with it. When they saw the researcher's one-day treatment, they realized that a competitor could leapfrog them if it got ahold of the treatment, so they knew they had to buy it out, but rather than introduce the one-day treatment immediately (i.e. leapfrog themselves) and give up any advantage the three-day treatment could have afforded them in the market, they decided to sit on the one-day treatment for several years. Doing so allowed them to benefit from being first-to-market with the three-day treatment, giving them a few years of market dominance, and then as their competitors started to catch up, they were able to be first-to-market with a one-day treatment which they could sell at a premium price. In essence, it allowed them to double the length of their lead in the market and command a higher price for the faster treatment.
All of which is to say, these aren't conspiracy theories. You're absolutely correct that these companies want to make even more money than they already have, but there are plenty of sound, financial reasons for them to sit on better technologies rather than introducing them immediately. I've highlighted merely one of them here.
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Oh, no doubt there would have been additional tests necessary, so a delay of a few years would certainly make sense and would be warranted. What we saw instead, however, was a delay well beyond when the tests would have been completed, and which was in place simply due to marketing reasons. After all, if you're already ahead of your competition, why tip your hand for what's still two generations out? Why not instead simply dominate the market for two generations?
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The two times I used a towncar service it was great. Typically they know the best routes through the city and they pay attention to rider comfort above all else, they do not drive like maniacs and intentionally slow down smoothly. The towncar I used in Chicago 4 years ago did not even have a GPS, he knew the city, something that is rare now.
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The several times I used Uber, it was great too. They picked me up in luxury cars (Mercedes, BMWs) and had much nicer cars than the towncar services I tried. They used GPS and took me by the most direct route, while the towncar service took weird back roads that took a lot longer. The towncars were also older and in poor shape, whereas the Uber cars were rather new and clean.
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"or focus on rich people who don't want to travel with unprofessionals."
WE have always had that, It's called hiring a town car. In any town you can make a call and hire a personal drive in a nice BMW 5 or 7 series or Lincoln or other luxury car to drive you everywhere you want and be at your beck and call.
And during "peak uber" pricing, it's cheaper to call a town car company and ride in class instead of some fat guys prius.
BMWs are for the middle class wannabe rich fuckers.
What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?
With the porcupine, the pricks are on the outside.
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We gots them too. If'n you call them town car folks 'round here that feller picks you up in a four-door dualie with "POWERED BY CUMMINS" wrote across the back winder. If you pay extra, that feller takes a hose to wash off most of the cow shit before he picks you up.
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You forgot the fact that many of these companies are part of the same groups, and most of these groups are led (in various ways) by people who went to school together and enjoy regular parties together, or have mutual friends or influential friends of friends who do.
and you just know this, how? Bottom line is, something like this that actually works (for a change) would be a cash cow. Like a real cure for baldness. Everyone ages. It's not like only a few selective people will want it. A bit like the undertaker business, you don't have to worry about running out of customers. Nearly everyone will want this, and the more affordable it is, the more people can and will buy it - economies of scale.
Walmart, Amazon, eBay, Google exist in your world? (Score:2)
Do Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and Google exist in your world, or does everybody shop at niche boutiques, who "sell little at a high price, rather than sell a lot at a low price"?
In my world, Costco sold $100 billion last year, and Walmart $473 billion. Google brought in $60 billion by giving stuff away free, to anyone who wants it - the most extreme form of "a lot at a low price" one can imagine.
In my world, the "sell little at a high price" places normally provide a job for the owner and nothing more, no prof
Re: Walmart, Amazon, eBay, Google exist in your wo (Score:3, Informative)
In most cases, Google doesn't sell to you. Instead, it sells you. Google sells you and me to advertisers, trend analysers and whatnot. That's why Google's services are "free". Bait is always free.
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I know likely that this was a joke, but I couldn't resist.
The fish doesn't pay for the bait.
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Brawndo has what plants crave!!!!!!!
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And yay, it shall come to pass that scientists will no longer interest themselves in saving lives and making the world a better place and shall instead devote their attention to preventing hair loss and prolonging erections... and delaying the effects of aging, "leaving your skin feeling visibly younger."
Doesn't match the facts. They were looking for ways to have less internal scarring on major blood vessels, and now their first product will be to treat lupus [mayoclinic.org].
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.
Lupus can be difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms often mimic those of other ailments. The most distinctive sign of lupus — a facial rash that resembles the wings of a butterfly unfolding across both cheeks — occurs in many but not all cases of lupus.
Some people are born with a tendency toward developing lupus, which may be triggered by infections, certain drugs or even sunlight. While there's no cure for lupus, treatments can help control symptoms.
There's more ... lots more.
Anti-Aging is a Fraud Magnet (Score:5, Interesting)
On the one hand, this could be huge. On the other hand, let's see the peer reviewed articles. Remember "resveratrol"? After seeing resveratrol covered by CBS 60 Minutes, etc, I bought some tablets, based on the similar mouse aging claims. Interesting history in Quackwatch.com describes how the mouse aging study led to $720M investment by GlaxoSmithKline. Once the money started rushing in, it went quacky...
"In 2012, the University of Connecticut announced that it had concluded that Dipak K. Das, Ph.D., a professor in its Department of Surgery and director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, was guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data and that the university had notified eleven journals about this problem [20]. In recent years, Das had gained attention for his reports on allegedly beneficial properties of resveratrol. As of March 2014, journals had retracted 20 of his papers, many of which were repeatedly cited by others [21]. Das died in 2013."
Some interesting research is still going on, tangentially from the resveratrol research. But the way anti-aging anything gets marketed, suspicion always seems warranted.
http://www.quackwatch.com/01Qu... [quackwatch.com]
Re:Anti-Aging is a Fraud Magnet (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Anti-Aging is a Fraud Magnet (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, you have a beautiful fur, but you can only eat like a mouse.
Re:Anti-Aging is a Fraud Magnet (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect it is part of the scarring/regeneration trade off. This collagen scaffolding action possibly helps skin heal faster after a cut, the trade off is wrinkles. Slower healing skin, but doing so blemish-free was not likely a good survival trait when a break in the skin barrier would increase chance of infection.
With modern medicine, infection risk might be abated by antibiotics/antiseptics.
This might also be awesome for burn victims (assuming you can keep infection at bay)
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With modern medicine, infection risk might be abated by antibiotics/antiseptics.
Not for long with the current over usage of antibiotics.
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Antiseptics [wikipedia.org] are not so impacted, and are the more likely agent to be used for a skin cut.
Cancer (Score:3)
It seems that wrinkling may be the price we pay for clearing potentially cancerous UV-damaged cells from the skin. It might be a bargain.
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My skin cream is not only anti-aging, but it can also be used to power my home cold fusion power generators!
The next version will also be able to do teleportation via quantum entanglement.
I challenge any Slashdotter to come up with a better product than that!
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Beat THAT.
Re:Anti-Aging is a Fraud Magnet (Score:4, Funny)
Das died in 2013."
So, the man who allegedly invented anti-aging has died? Talk about bad PR.
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The problem is that as aging is not a disease anti-aging pills are not medicines and are much easier to put on the market. I'm not sure whether aging should be seen as a disease or not by the legislators, but at least it would put an end to these scams.
First definition of disease:
a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.
Aging IS a disease, and a fatal one at that.
Re:Anti-Aging is a Fraud Magnet (Score:5, Informative)
Usually most aging-preventing discoveries cause cancer. For example, the p21 knockout mice that gained almost salamander-like regeneration also gained a high tumor rate. Usually processes in your body involving the stopping of growth and areas dying off are things that help prevent cancer from forming or growing.
Home made inhibitor? (Score:2)
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Find out the gene, make a few interfering RNAs candidates, blast it into the skin cells (not as hard since its a surface tissue), choose the ones that did not knock down other similar proteins and BAM! you got it.
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Does anyone know how to make an inhibitor for this Granzyme B enzyme?... Before pfizer patents it and charges $10.000 per drop?
This is what they were experimenting with to see if they could protect large arteries from scarring. It's in TFA, which now appears to be slashdotted.
Accident report (Score:2)
Researchers accidentally discover ... ... couldn't help noticing that mice had beautiful skin at the end of the experiment
Who buys that? Did they really find something and hide the truth about how they did it, or are they just looking for some ways to get media attention?
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Why is it there? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why is it there? (Score:4, Informative)
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Interesting, but I can't help wonder if this enzyme exists for a reason. I presume these scientists are working hard to determine what evolutionary role it fills (before working on selling it as part of an anti-aging cream)
I hear this a lot... There seems to be a lot of misconception about evolution and the body. We gain and lose traits when they affect our ability to reproduce... and at no other time. So, at some time, this enzyme increased our ability to reproduce in some way. It did not need to increase our chances of survival because, evolution only cares about getting us to reproductive maturity. So, whatever reason that enzyme helped us in the past may be long gone and it's just a vestige of that time. It'll not be brea
not quite (Score:4, Insightful)
We gain and lose traits when they affect our ability to reproduce... and at no other time.
This isn't quite accurate. We can gain/lose traits randomly and if they don't impede our ability to reproduce they could get passed on. Also, some traits are genetically linked to more desirable traits, so they get dragged along by the other traits even if they're not necessarily desirable in and of themselves.
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Perhaps the advantage this enzyme gives is by wrinkly skin being an indicator of age. For women, it might signal that a woman is past her best breeding years and the male should invest his resources elsewhere (that would be more of a tribal advantage). And for men (though this is a stretch), it might indicate that the man has survived longer (having good genes) and maybe has more resources, meaning he can better support his offspring.
Loads of flaws there, I'm sure :)
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Evolution doesn't care if you get ugly, contract cancer and die in your 50s. If this thing doesn't make you less attractive or hurt your chances to make it into your teens and early 20s, evolution doesn't even notice it.
Yes it does care, children need parents to raise and protect them. Furthermore, grandparents can help raise and protect their grandchildren. Both of these increase the odds that their offspring will reproduce.
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It did not need to increase our chances of survival because, evolution only cares about getting us to reproductive maturity.
Well yes, but humans have a long maturation period. Getting us to reproductive maturity necessitates keeping our parents alive as well, not just us. A human with at least one parent who survives 15 years after its birth has a decided evolutionary advantage over a human with no parent surviving a year after birth. A human with two present parents surviving at least 20 years after birth has an even bigger advantage. A human with two present parents surviving at least 20 years after birth plus at least one
I, for one (Score:2, Funny)
welcome our new handsome mice overlords
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New?! They controlled us all the time. At least since our ancestors arrived at this planet.
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New?! They controlled us all the time. At least since our ancestors arrived at this planet.
And they have now tricked scientists into a discovery that will keep them youthful looking with incredible skin!
viDA Therapeutics hopes to make this a skin cream (Score:4, Informative)
viDA Therapeutics, a company co-founded by Granville, is currently developing a Granzyme-B inhibitor based on technology licensed from UBC. The company plans to test a topically applied drug within two years on people with discoid lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease worsened by sunlight that can lead to disfiguring facial scarring. (The musician Seal has such a condition.)
If the drug proves effective in preventing lupus-related skin lesions, there is potential for a cosmetic product to prevent the normal, gradual aging of the skin, which is mostly caused by sun exposure. But the drug might also be used for life-threatening conditions, such as aneurysms and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, caused by the breakdown of collagen and other proteins that provide structure to blood vessels and lung passages.
Mod points (Score:2)
They only appear after I've commented, on that thread, at which point I'm no longer able to moderate that thread.
Very annoying, any way to get the moderation options to always show up?
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I have mod points, but when I read comments there are no drop down lists for me to comment. They only appear after I've commented, on that thread, at which point I'm no longer able to moderate that thread. Very annoying, any way to get the moderation options to always show up?
Just go to another story and spend your mod points there.
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Actually when I start writing a post the mod options appear, so I guess from now on I'll just press "Post" when I want to mod.
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I for one welcome (Score:2)
our pale smoooooth skined mice overlord.
The Grand Budapest Hotel's quote (Score:2)
increased risk of cancer? (Score:3)
given that tumour cells (for solid tumours) normally have defects in extra-cellular matrix related genes (eg genes in the collagen family are sometimes mutated in advanced gastric cancer) that help the tumour invade and spread through tissues, I wonder if using such a treatment increases the chances of either tumours forming, or tumours becoming higher grade/more serious more quickly...
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Aging (Score:2)
But this is interesting - so in essence if we can repair cell damage and suppress this factor then youth is maintainable for a period. Nice!
They don't mention the mice portraits in the attic (Score:3)
Umbrella Corporation (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure I played a video game that started out just like this. Maybe they'll do Dobermans next. The fact that I live north of Seattle leads makes me a little unnerved about Vancouver as Raccoon City. On the bright side, who doesn't want the chance to waste some zombies?
the sociology of accidents (Score:2)
The only "accidental" discovery in science is the discovery one could have stretched out over a great many more research grants if one had better anticipated the scientific windfall.
Of course, we do tend to refer to the outcome of bad planning as "an accident" concerning our hominid prime directive, so perhaps there's no help for language after all.
Re:Seems unintuative (Score:4, Interesting)
the redness is caused by blood swelling to the damaged skin to flush out the dead stuff.
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So they could come up with a cream that lets you remain wrinkle-free until you are past your nineties, but at the expense of being unable to tolerate prolonged exposure to sunlight?
Even if they were entirely open about this drawback, it'd still sell. A lot of people really are desperate to look young, and wouldn't mind giving up their time on the beach and having to douse themselves in sunscreen when attending outdoors events.
Re:Seems unintuative (Score:5, Insightful)
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+1
"immortal, sunlight-fearing vampires"
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+1
"immortal, sunlight-fearing vampires"
Actually, with this, the vampires wouldn't fear sunlight any more.
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Correct.
Sunlight UV is the number 1 factor for skin wrinkling. If you look at *any* anti-wrinkling / skin rejuvenating cream you will always see them contain a sunblock component as a top ingredient.
That's the "1 weird tip" of the day for staying young looking ;)
Inside! One Anonymous Coward's Weird Tip to Fight Aging Skin
Dermatologists Hate Him!
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So they could come up with a cream that lets you remain wrinkle-free until you are past your nineties, but at the expense of being unable to tolerate prolonged exposure to sunlight?
Don't tell me, the other side effect is the development of fangs and a desire to drink blood.
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So they could come up with a cream that lets you remain wrinkle-free until you are past your nineties, but at the expense of being unable to tolerate prolonged exposure to sunlight?
Don't tell me, the other side effect is the development of fangs and a desire to drink blood.
To the contrary - the mice that had the enzyme blocked tolerated prolonged expose without and problems. You'd be able to stay outside a LOT longer.
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The Goth community will buy this stuff by the bucket full.
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I think you may be misunderstanding. The summary says that it is the engineered mice that could resist the sunlight while the normal mice became prunes. In this case the cream (more likely a shot) would be what allows you to stay out in the sun without using sunscreen at all.
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Oh noes! Daywalker Goths!
Now we have to look at all those gross piercings in the full light of day? Ick.
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I think you may be misunderstanding. The summary says that it is the engineered mice that could resist the sunlight while the normal mice became prunes. In this case the cream (more likely a shot) would be what allows you to stay out in the sun without using sunscreen at all.
TFS makes it sound like the mice are still susceptible to sunburns (and probably skin cancer), but that their skin is no worse off looking after the burn heals. I'm just curious what the unintended consequences of that would be. Our skin probably gets old and wrinkly for a reason.
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It grants them unprunability. That doesn't imply cancer-resistance. It's quite possible that aspect of sun damage would be worsened, as you're shutting down one of the evolved damage-mitigation mechanisms.
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There is 40 percent chance that once you die after this product gives you cancer, you will turn into a zombie. So please weigh the risks.
A zombie with beautiful skin... what's not to like?
Re:what's not to like? (Score:2)
Indeed!
Pros as a Zombie:
-Immortal provided head stays connected
-No sleep
-NEW: Beautiful skin!
Cons:
-Ugly
-No dates
-No sleep
-only has one goal in life: eating Raw Human hagass
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I believe it is there to help skin heal faster, with a scar, after injury. Faster, but scarred, healing is something we decided was more useful to survival than flawless regeneration (see Salamanders). Skin provides protection from infection, having that heal quick and dirty was very important before antibiotics and antiseptics.
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Instead of trying save people from the ravages of heart attacks, they'll all be golden parachuting into their new startup selling this crap to vain and insecure one-percenters at immoral levels of profit.
Before completely writing it off, perhaps we wait and see what useful things could also come of this technology, to include funding the original research with "immoral" profits.
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No matter how rich or poor you are it is safe to assume that you will be dead within 100 years of your birth. Now what if there was a way for someone to cheat aging and live indefinitely. Now picture what life in the world would be like if the people who believed in slavery, segregation, and those who opposed suffrage for women were still alive and running the government and industry. A society where the people in power are over 100 years old would cease to socially evolve.
At the beginning of the last century the average age at death was 47. When, 19 1935, FDR signed the law that allowed social security plans to start at 65, they figured almost nobody would be around to collect, so it would be easy to fund.
Now we're living a LOT longer. And we're continuing to increase our average life expectancy. And that's in the face of increases in diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
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When you wrote "Most advances in medicine for the elderly don't let them live longer so much as they improve quality of life in their remaining years" you stated something that is easily disproved.
The old are living longer than ever before. [nih.gov]
It wasn’t until the 20th century that mortality rates began to decline within the older ages. Research for more recent periods shows a surprising and continuing improvement in life expectancy among those aged 80 or above.
The progressive increase in survival in these oldest age groups was not anticipated by demographers, and it raises questions about how high the average life expectancy can realistically rise and about the potential length of the human lifespan. While some experts assume that life expectancy must be approaching an upper limit, data on life expectancies between 1840 and 2007 show a steady increase averaging about three months of life per year. The country with the highest average life expectancy has varied over time. In 1840 it was Sweden and today it is Japan—but the pattern is strikingly similar. So far there is little evidence that life expectancy has stopped rising even in Japan.
Older people are living longer. It's a trend that has been going on for a century. This has nothing to do with reduced infant mortality, since we're talking specifically about aging within the population that is 80 years old and more.